Hi, I tried Weight Watchers last year and had some success but then they amalgamated two groups together to make one huge one and I didn't like it very much and left.

I am really thinking about slimming world but before I spend any money I wondered if someone could advise if it would suit my lifestyle.

I'm really busy, working a lot of hours with three kids. I'm not a great cook, I tend to have toast for brekkie, pasta salad (with shop bought pesto and wafer thin ham & salad items) or a sandwich for lunch and dinners are usually stir fries, 'roast' dinner, chilli (from scratch with packet mix and rice), Curry (made with jars) with rice etc. I think what I'm trying to say is I'm not a good cook and use jars, packet mixes etc, I don't have lots of time - I work till around 2pm and by the time I come home (3pm) I am ravenous and I've usually bought something unhealthy to have on the bus on the way home. I also don't have a lot of spare money and I am trying to reduce the amount I spend on food.

Is slimming world easy to follow and are there plenty of options for very fast meals that are cost effective? Does it cost a lot to follow? My main problems with diets are that I am always hungry and I have a big appetite and I have heard SW is good for this.

If someone could advise me I would really appreciate it, thanks.

23rd January, 2014

katieh88

Hi Alison, you sound a lot like me not a good cook at all lol. I also have 3 children which keep me very busy. Iv been doing slimming world off and on for around a year. There is some great easy and simple recipes you can make without using jars and packets. There is lots of free and super free foods you can fill up. The great thing about slimming world is that you are never hungry. The best think I would advise you to do is buy the food optimising book which will tell you everything you need to know. You can either get it off eBay or you get it when you join a group. The slimming world magazines are also good and give you a lot of advice and brilliant recipes. Good luck! Xx

23rd January, 2014

ACH

Using jars often won't be easy on SW as they are high in syns unfortunately. But for something like a curry of chilli you just turn a tin of chopped toms upside down in your pan add your chilli powder or curry powder and hey presto it's free, just as quick as opening a jar and cheaper as supermarkets own tinned toms are like 30p. If you like pasta salads then this is good as I live off tuna pasta salad with loads of salad for lunches just make it in advance and take your box out with you so you don't get hungry or tempted on the bus home. It can be done cheaply too, just buy frozen veg! Cheap stuff like pasta, potatoes, eggs, beans, frozen veg etc and it's something all the family can eat, chilli, bolognaise curry etc etc

23rd January, 2014

i_am_plankton

I think you'll be fine - I sometimes use jars for quickness and because of the number of portions we get out of it, it's very good syn-wise (I get 8 portions of lasagne out of a 500g jar of bolognese sauce and a packet of passata and that's only around 1.5 syns per portion then)

SW can be expensive if you're always buying the branded stuff but there's cheaper alternatives available :-)

23rd January, 2014

Gwella

I think on the plus side:
- With SW there are lots of recipes out there which will help you learn to cook healthily. Ultimately cooking from scratch is one of the best ways to learn about healthy eating and change your approach to food for the long term.
- If you have a freezer you can save time and money by cooking big batches of things to defrost later
- If you use a lot of processed sauces etc you will probably find there are cheaper options out there, such as tomatoes with some garlic and herbs
- There are cheap ways to cook on a budget - the blog 'A Girl Called Jack' is good for this
- You may save money on things like snacks or alcohol, depending on how much you normally have
- SW is family friendly and you won't need to make anything separate for kids (as well as teaching them good food habits!)
- There are some quick 'grab' options like light cereal bars for breakfast.
- The plan really works and no, you should never be hungry.
- you don't have to spend much time weighing and measuring like with Weightwatchers.

On the downside:
- There is no denying that it can take time. It depends on your tastes. I don't find cheap fruit very exciting so I spend time most evenings chopping up a mixture of it to have as fruit salad. Cooking sauces from scratch can be quick, but livening them up with herbs and yogurt and so on does take a bit longer. It is very important to plan ahead eg what you're going to have for lunch as most convenience options aren't very plan-friendly.
- There are ways round it, but buying a lot of varied fresh fruit/veg can get expensive. Frozen is cheaper but not so varied. Also watch out for things like Mullerlights as those individual yogurts cost!

23rd January, 2014

xAlisonx

Hi thanks to everyone for their input. With the quick grab breakfasts are things such as light cereal bars included or do they cos syns? Are banana's free? What sort of quick filling lunches could you have? I'm really undecided at the mo, I've been trying to go it alone with no success and I've tried orlistat and lost a fair bit but I tend to put it back on after and likewise with WW :( It's getting me down now as I got down into the 12's and I'm now steadily creeping back up

23rd January, 2014

xAlisonx

Hi, sorry, can I also ask what sort of quick lunches you can have on SW? I usually have sandwiches and I'm presuming the bread isn't free on sw?

23rd January, 2014

ACH

You get healthy extras....so 2 slices of nimble of other 400g loaf would be or one slice wholemeal from an 800g or a 60g wholemeal roll or you could have 2 alpen light bars as a HEB or cereal. For HEA Option you can pick milk or cheese, one of HEB and one HEA per day. Bananas area free, in fact theya re SUPERFREE, you could grab a banana with an alpen light for quick on the to snack

if you join up you'll get the box and all the information which will include grab and go things and lots of ideas. There is loads of lunch idea threads on this forum somewhere have a nosy round

27th January, 2014

xAlisonx

Thanks for all the info. I've got my free membership coupon from Reveal mag and I'm all set to start on Wednesday night. If anyone could advise me on a few bits of shopping to get me started before I get my info pack I'd really appreciate it. I've read somewhere that certain yoghurts are free and also some bachelors pasta packets??? etc I just want to stock up on fast free bits and pieces plus a few ingrediants for easy meals (curries,stir fries etc) to get me started

27th January, 2014

lickthelid

If you have a look a bit further down someone asked for a basic shopping list. There are loads of good ideas on there.

As a starter though

muller lights
mugshots
i don't buy packet pasta through so can't help with those
normal pasta and rice
eggs
chicken breasts
a variety of spices
frylight
As much fruit and veg (both fresh and frozen) as you can/will eat
potatoes

Hi thank you for the info. Can I ask are all the mugshots and mullerlights completely free?

27th January, 2014

xAlisonx

Just been scouring around online and noticed that chickpea dahl from Asda is free and also Bachelors pasta n Sauce chicken and mushroom and the cheese and brocolli ones are free (correct me if I'm wrong someone :)) so I'm adding those to my list as emergency foods. Is there somewhere I can look that has a list of all the free foods I can buy (not the fruit and veg but the other stuff like the bachelors stuff etc) or do I get access to a list after my first meeting on Wednesday?

27th January, 2014

lickthelid

I think if you look in the syns section there are lists of certain food types like the mullers. There isn't a comprehensive list otherwise it breaches SW copyright. If you do a search it will come up